Psychoactive Substances

Steve Brine Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Norman Baker]

I am not an expert on the history of EU legislation, fortunately, but this case seems to me to be somewhat blatant and rather clear-cut, so I am certainly hopeful that we will make progress on this occasion, not least because of the support from other member states.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

I thoroughly support what the Minister is saying. This is not only unwelcome interference in a member state’s affairs, but could be very dangerous. He knows of the case of a constituent of mine from Chandler’s Ford—I have raised it in questions recently—in which the Government were able to respond, although not as quickly as I would have liked. What is proposed here from an EU level is actually quite dangerous.

[Norman Baker]

So far there has not been great success with regard to the speed of activity from the European Union. The proposals it is putting forward would, in my view, be slower than the present UK proposals, so irrespective of the legal base, that is not a good message to send out to those who wish to deal with what are often quite dangerous substances.